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Overview

Harry Styles' Coronavirus Merch Controversy refers to merchandise released by singer Harry Styles featuring the message "Stay Home. Stay Safe. Protect Each Other" in April 2020 in an effort to raise money for the World Health Organization (WHO) during the coronavirus pandemic. The merchandise drew widespread criticism on Twitter for being tone-deaf and for encouraging lower-income fans to donate money instead of donating something himself.

Background

On April 7th, 2020, The Twitter^[2] account linked to Harry Styles' website,^[1] @HSHQ, tweeted, "Stay Home. Stay Safe. Protect Each Other. Now available in the Official Store 100% of profits to be donated to the #COVID19 Solidarity Response Fund for the @WHO, powered by the @UN Foundation. #WorldHealthDay" (shown below). The tweet gained over 40,400 likes and 8,900 retweets in a day.

Developments

On April 7th, 2020, Rolling Stone tweeted, "Harry Styles is selling a shirt that will support COVID-19 relief efforts -- with 100% of the profits going to the Solidarity Response Fund" to which Twitter user @ant_cee^[3] responded, "This should be on a list of celebrity fails right along with 'Imagine.' How utterly tone deaf. A crappy shirt with his own branding so he can get a tax deduction. And only "profits" ie no cost to him. Not to mention the factory workers and energy involved in making this junk" (shown below, left). That same day, Twitter user @flightoficaruz^[4] tweeted, "y’all bullied zayn off this site cuz he shared a donation link and “he rich he could’ve donate himself” so I’m expecting the same energy for harry styles selling y’all codiv-19 merch to ‘spread awareness’ while strolling in the streets every other day and doing nothing himself" (shown below, right). The tweet received over 190 likes in a day.

That same day, Twitter user @SarahBayliss714 tweeted a Rose McGowan reaction video with the caption, "harry styles to coronavirus by selling merch which requires more essential worker exposure in order to sell and deliver haha" (shown below).

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